Audio Kinesis Swarm Subwoofer Awarded 2019 Golden Ear Award by Robert E. Greene

Rooze wrote: 

" I can’t get beyond the notion that some subs just don’t sound very good, and multiplying an average sounding sub by four surely doesn’t equate to good quality bass.... how can it?" 

I think the suitability of the subs for this application matters. Back to that in a moment.

The biggest issue at low frequencies is room interaction. Compared to the few dB difference between good subs, the peak-and-dip patterns that rooms impose on subs are huge. By spreading multiple subs around the room, we get four significantly different room-interaction peak-and-dip patterns. The more different peak-and-dip patterns we are summing, the smoother the net result.

Now ime subs with huge bottom ends are generally not the best choice for a distributed multi-sub setup. My understanding is that your Hsu’s have pluggable ports, and ime that can be very helpful in getting the in-room bottom end balanced right (it’s what I do too). If you had four Hsu’s with pluggable ports, I’d say start out with the ports plugged in all of the subs except for one, the one nearest a corner. One sub in one corner is okay, but I suggest no more than one. If the Hsu’s have phase adjustment, put the one farthest from the main speakers in reverse polarity, unless that’s the one with the ports open.

Then if you need more low end, unplug one port (your choice which one). If you need less low end, plug ports in that sub nearest a corner. I have zero experience with a quartet of Hsu’s, but this is what I would try. The ability to plug ports in the Hsu’s may make them actually more suitable fort this application than most subs.   I'm not suggesting you buy two more Hsu's - just tossing out an idea of how Hsu's might be used. 

Duke

That may be a very good subwoofer but not only for the money must being a great subwoofer period ,and have one subwoofer of the year ,and by far most technically advanced, and controlled on their app. The SVS 
SB- 3000,13 inch driver, for under $1k delivered 
60 day money back guarantee they will even pay the shipping both ways   A scaled down version of the great flagship ultra 16
it has a 800 wpc high current Bash amplifier ,2600 watt peaks , goes 
down to 28 hz, 50 MHz-56 bit Processor for precision control 
and a split coil voice coil ,which is this and their flagship the only ones out there ,meaning great Bass even at lower volumes using the inner part of the coil.when things get demanding then it uses the bigger outer part of the coil 
for this price and a discount if you buy2 for $1900 two great subs to balance your room out . Just check out the reviews .i have had Rel, JL Audio and even at $2k
no sub better  check it out at see allthe rave reviews ,and No one 
offers a 5 year warranty, and 60 day audition ,they also have a ported version which gives more impact for movies. But for music sealed is better and 54 lbs,only 15 inch square.

Duke,

I have 4 different systems set up throughout my house.  My main system has 4 subs in it (plus a HSU mid-bass module I engage for movies).  The other systems all have one sealed sub each.  I'm in a good situation where my girlfriend and I both have our own places and when she comes over she loves to listen to music with me, so I get zero push back on how many subs or records or turntables or whatever I have.  Life is good.

Congratulations Duke! 

I'm in the process of building a swarm of Dukes design using 4 12" drivers called the Duke 24.  Made by Leland at Speaker Hardware, the cabinets are built and exterior is waiting for me to apply veneer.  I am using the dayton audio sa1000 to drive them.

Mike 

Congrats on the award and the idea of applying sound theories and principals that resulted in a product that stretches the envelope of home audio performance.  
I have successfully integrated one and two subwoofer solutions into my system when the main speakers had a natural roll off (acoustic crossover)  that made for a near ideal low pass frequency relative to the subwoofers.  
However I was not so successful with a recent set of main speakers that had extended low frequency output to 20Hz from the transmission line port.  I used two high quality highly adjustable subs (via a remote app) and although 80% of music sounded great, the other 20% caused issues that I could not live with- blurring midrange and low quality bass definition being the most common.  
I probably would have had better luck if I filtered the main speakers but this is something I am not willing to do because of practical implications and personal preference / audio sensibilities.    
I am now on a new set of main speakers and although I love the bass, measurements show that it reaches a certain output and levels off while the rest of the frequency spectrum can get louder. 
I miss the louder bass with more impact as the volume increases.    
One option I have is to increase amplifier power.   This should work well.
Another option I have is to try again with subwoofers (which I am reluctant to do) 

Would the 4 sub array lend itself to better integration with main speakers that are near full range (avoiding bass quality and blurred midrange issues) without high passing them?   How?  

In my two-sub setups I found that I needed to adjust the phase or each individually for best integration.  
Why wouldn't I need to do this with the swarm system?  

Thanks.